McCain’s Health and Age Loom in Background

By Sarah Rubenstein

John McCain occasionally gets asked about his age on the campaign trail. At 71, he’d be the oldest person elected to a first term as president.

But despite his noticeably puffy left cheek, he isn’t quizzed much about his health, the New York Times wrote this weekend.

The puffy cheek — and the scar that runs down the back of his neck — are both the result of surgery McCain underwent in August 2000 for melanoma, a potentially fatal form of skin cancer. The main reason for the operation was to figure out if the cancer had spread from his left temple to a key lymph node in his neck, the Times reported. A test at the time showed it hadn’t. But because the tests aren’t definitive, the surgeons also removed the surrounding lymph nodes and part of a saliva-producing gland in the same five-and-a-half hour operation at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale.

The melanoma removed in 2000 was graded stage IIa on a standard classification that makes stage IV the most serious, the Times explained. For stage IIa, the survival rate 10 years after diagnosis is about 65%. But things look better than that for patients like McCain, who have already survived more than seven years.

Unlike when McCain ran for president in 1999, his campaign this time has been circumspect on the topic of his health. McCain hasn’t yet made his full medical records of his physicians available to reporters, the Times noted, but the campaign expects to release the information in April.

Maybe questions about McCain’s age remain disguised. A piece in the Boston Globe over the weekend, suggested that “the ubiquity and subtlety of age discrimination” and its role in the presidential campaign wasn’t obvious even to self-described political junkie Renée Loth, editor of the paper’s editorial page. “Indeed, ageism may be society’s last acceptable prejudice,” she wrote. But she noted a survey done by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press last year that found 48% of respondents were less willing to vote for someone older than 70 for president. The only group that did worse than the old–atheists.

The Health Blog also noticed a few tidbits the presumptive Republican nominees medicine chest. McCain’s campaign said he took Merck and Schering-Plough’s now-controversial drug Vytorin to lower his cholesterol, along with a baby aspirin to help prevent heart attacks, a multivitamin and occasionally Schering-Plough’s Claritin or GlaxoSmithKline’s Flonase for allergies.

Health Blog Questions of the Day: Is McCain young enough and fit enough to be president?

Comments (5 of 11)

Gov. Mike Huckabee's foreign policy (go to MikeHuckabee.com) is not totally dissimilar to that of McCain's. He supports our troops in Iraq 100%. Gov. Huckabee is the only candidate that has signed the No Amnesty Pledge so he has distanced himself somewhat from McCain on the immigrant issue. He has a 9 step plan to solve the illegal immigration problem that you can read about on his website. Building the fence and securing our borders is his first priority as a president/VP. Other priorities are for the US to become energy and agriculturally independent within the next 10 years.

Experience counts and Gov. Huckabee has 13 years state leadership as Lt. Gov. and Gov. of AR – more governor leadership experience than all the other 2008 presidential candidates. He was elected as Lt. Gov. of AR during a special election in 1993 and then reelected Lt. Gov following this term in 1994 and became Gov. in 1996 when the former Democratic Gov. was sent to jail. When the term was up as a governor by default, Huckabee was elected Gov. twice more after that in 1998 and again in 2002.

From MikeHuckabee.com you will find these details on his leadership: "Governing Magazine named him as one of its ‘Public Officials of the Year’ for 2005, Time Magazine honored him as one of the five best governors in America, and later in the same year, Huckabee received the American Association of Retired Person’s Impact Award. In 2007, he was presented with the Music for Life Award by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) for his commitment to music education.

Huckabee is past chairman of the National Governors’ Association (NGA) and chairman of the Education Commission of the States. During his tenure as governor, he served in other leadership positions including president of the Council of State Governments, state co-chairman of the Delta Regional Authority, and chairman of the Southern Governors Association, the Southern Regional Education Board, the Southern Growth Policies Board, the Southern Technology Council, the Southern International Trade Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.

As former chairman of the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission, Huckabee worked with the 37-state coalition to develop energy policy and lobby Congress on energy matters, such as the regulation of oil and gas production. He also is known nationally for his focus on technology in state government. He created an automobile license renewal system that’s become a model for states across the country."

Unlike many other candidates and potential VP nominees, Gov. Mike Huckabee is and always has been 100% prolife, pro-family, and pro-marriage and is the only candidate who supports a Life Amendment supporting life from the moment of conception until natural death. The marriage amendment that he supports states that marriage is a commitment between one man and one woman. He does not support gay lifestyles, or gay marriage and never will. Huckabee supports school choice and homeschooling and high educational standards. He does not support school vouchers because they come with strings attached. He is very pro 2nd amendment and is an avid hunter and the only governor to have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Gov. Mike Huckabee is an outstanding candidate for President/VP. Not only does he have 13 years of experience in government as a compassionate governor of AR, but he is truly an amiable and caring man with a great sense of humor. He already has an army of faithful volunteers who are willing to work to get him elected at the grassroots level. At 51, Gov. Mike Huckabee is young enough to serve as VP under McCain and then go on to become the president for two consecutive terms. Huckabee received just as many delegates in this presidential race as Romney and yet Huckabee ran on a shoestring budget. Read more at the About page and Issues page at MikeHuckabee.com.
Grace in Alaska
Delegate to the state convention this week and hopefully GOP national delegate

6:36 pm March 10, 2008

Peter Foley wrote :

Oops, insert shouldn't for should

6:34 pm March 10, 2008

Peter Foley wrote :

Better a old left-center Republican then a bent socialist/Clinton or a Chicago style near communist/Obama.
Anon @ 1216, Didn't you hear about Saddam's intent to build WMDs on Sixty Minutes? Even the Main stream Media has to admit the end of Saddam was required--History has answered already that the invasion of Iraq has prevented a much greater tragedy. The one thing 43 has done is exposed many Republican cabinet level officials aren't up to snuff and should be used in any future administration.

2:40 pm March 10, 2008

Christine Davis wrote :

McCain still campaigns with his mother. He is from a long-lived family and probably has 20-30 years to live.

12:16 pm March 10, 2008

Anonymous wrote :

Age does not always equate to experience. However, judgement can certainly be impaired by age, especially if you have little of it to begin with (See Iraq).